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Lamine Yamal’s last-gasp penalty earned Barcelona a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday, while Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray in Istanbul for the second
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Pakistan awarded ODI debuts to four players and Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field Wednesday to open the three-match series.Sahibzada Farhan, Maaz Sadaqat, Shamyl Hussain and Abdul Samad formed the new-look Pakistan top
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US President Donald Trump has said that Iran is "welcome" to participate in the upcoming World Cup in North America, despite the ongoing Middle East war, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday.The war, triggered
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India head coach Gautam Gambhir credited Sanju Samson’s crucial 97 against the West Indies as the turning point in India’s triumphant campaign at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which concluded with the hosts lifting
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Formula One's new era heads into its first sprint in Shanghai this weekend, with the Chinese Grand Prix promising a very different test to Melbourne, where George Russell led home a Mercedes one-two.The Silver Arrows
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Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz were both made to work hard before reaching the fourth round of Indian Wells on Monday but defending women’s champion Mirra Andreeva crashed out and let her frustrations boil over
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Rarely do record 15-time winners Real Madrid enter a Champions League clash as underdogs but this is the situation when Manchester City visit the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.With key attackers Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and
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INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 10: Aryna Sabalenka returns a shot to Naomi Osaka of Japan during Day 7 of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 10, 2026 in
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Twenty20 was designed to favour batters, but few anticipated the bowlers’ bloodbath that unfolded across four weeks in India and Sri Lanka at the just-concluded Twenty20 World Cup. The 20-team tournament became a high-octane showcase of power-hitting, redefining the upper limits of scoring and rewriting what a “par” total looks like in this format. A staggering 780 sixes were hit in this year’s tournament, a 50.87% jump from the 517 hammered in the 2024 edition in West Indies and the United States. The 200-mark was breached a record 14 times and eventual champions India alone posted three of the four 250-plus totals in the tournament. Flat tracks across both host nations combined with fearless intent pushed the collective batting strike rate to 134, the highest in tournament history and a stark indicator of where white-ball batting is heading. As India muscled their way to a mammoth 255-5 in the final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad, former England captain Michael Vaughan took to X to say: “fantastic striking ... but let’s be honest this isn’t a fair balance between Bat & Ball.” New Zealand coach Rob Walter, however, saw little point in complaining about batting carnage if fans were enthralled. “I guess it comes down to what you view as entertainment, really,” Walter told reporters. “It seems to be the trend around the world that runs are the thing that people want to see. Of course, I believe you still want to have an even contest.” That appetite for fours and sixes was reflected off the field as well. The India-England semi-final in Mumbai shattered digital records, with ICC chairman Jay Shah noting on X a peak concurrency of 65.2 million viewers - the highest for any live event worldwide. “It is tough, the bats are very good,” Walter said. “The guys obviously practise hitting the ball far, and when the pitches give not much to the bowlers, it does make it very tough. But ultimately, if that’s the way the game’s going then the onus is obviously on the bowlers to develop their skills and develop them quickly.” India’s Jasprit Bumrah is probably the template. The seam-bowling genius, for the third time in a T20 World Cup, walked away with the best economy rate (6.21) of any player to have bowled 100-plus balls - a reminder that elite skill can still choke scoring even on highways. “Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation bowler. I can call him a national treasure,” India captain Suryakumar Yadav said of his pace spearhead. Related Story
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Tottenham Hotspur interim coach Igor Tudor has been criticised for his treatment of goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky after substituting him after 17 minutes of his side’s 5-2 loss at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday. Tudor sprung a surprise by dropping regular keeper Guglielmo Vicario for the last-16 first leg tie and handing Czech Kinsky his first start since October. But the move backfired in spectacular fashion as Tottenham conceded three goals in the opening 15 minutes - two of them resulting from glaring errors by the young keeper. Tudor immediately sent on Vicario, the Croat standing stony-faced as a stunned Kinsky headed for the sanctuary of the dressing room. “He’s (Tudor) made decisions that he maybe thinks is going to one, keep him in a job, or two, keep Tottenham in the Premier League and performances are going to turn around,” former Leeds United, Tottenham and England keeper Paul Robinson told the BBC. “It was a very selfish decision (to substitute him) as a manager. “I think he brought Kinsky in tonight thinking that if he does well I have got an excuse to keep him in now until the end of the season. He reverted on that decision very, very early on in the game. “It’s quite blatantly for self preservation by the manager because it was a decision that he thought was best for him and his team at the time, without consideration for the young goalkeeper.” Joe Hart said he was shocked by Tudor’s treatment of Kinsky. “The whole stadium is feeling sorry for him. He walks past Igor Tudor - and he doesn’t even acknowledge him. If that’s man-management, I am flabbergasted,” the former England keeper, who also had a spell at Tottenham, said. “He’s had a bad moment, a slip, and then another bad moment. But the fact he (Tudor) has taken him off, at 22, to just rip him off, how is that good for him?” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said he had never seen anything like it before and there was even sympathy from Atletico’s fans and players. “Mentally, it must be very tough for the goalkeeper. It wasn’t the best solution,” French striker Antoine Griezmann said. Support also came from former Manchester United keeper David de Gea. “No one who hasn’t been a goalkeeper can understand how difficult it is to play in this position. Keep your head up and you will go again,” the Spaniard said on X. The defeat set an unwanted record for Tottenham who suffered a sixth successive loss for the first time in the club’s history. It also raised serious questions about whether Tudor will remain in his post. He replaced Thomas Frank last month with a reputation for helping turn around clubs in trouble but he has lost all four of his games in charge and if anything relegated-threatened Tottenham’s performances have deteriorated. “I need to apologise to the fans, to everyone. It’s incredibly difficult to explain, at least for the first 20 minutes, I’ve never seen in my life, things like this. It’s very strange to explain,” Tudor said.
